Bitget vs Bybit 2026: Security, Proof of Reserves, Two Hacks, Fees and Earn Compared

I started with Bybit and Binance, and later also began using Bitget because its fee discount percentage was higher. I have accounts at both, and this article compares them side by side: security, past incidents, licences, fees and earn products.

The short version: both have been hacked; more was stolen from Bybit but its withdrawals kept running, while less was stolen from Bitget but its withdrawals were suspended for about a week. Bybit’s proof of reserves is verified by Hacken, and it holds MiCA authorisation in the European Economic Area. Bitget’s reserve ratios are higher, but it publishes the reports itself, with no third-party audit. On fees, both charge regular users 0.1% on spot; Bitget lets you pay with BGB for a discount, and its VIP 1 threshold is much lower. If you only want to put a few hundred USDT into flexible earn, both pay higher tiered rates on the first portion; go by the page on the day.

This article shares my own experience and research. It is not investment, tax or legal advice. Fees, rates, licences and service regions can change; every figure here is from the date shown, so check both exchanges’ official pages before you act. This site does not give advice on futures or leveraged trading; futures fees are listed only so readers can compare costs.

Bitget and Bybit at a glance

Fee and order book depth figures are from 8 October 2026 (order book depth from CoinGecko); VIP thresholds and earn rates are from 7 October. The two boxes below show each exchange’s rating and key data, taken from the same data as my rating table:

Bitget key factsData checked: 2026-10-08

As of 2026-10-08, Bitget's general-user spot taker fee is 0.1% and its futures taker fee is 0.06%; signing up with the invitation code gives a 20% trading fee discount. Its 2026-09-29 proof of reserves showed BTC 142%, ETH 110%, USDT 107%.

Item	Details	Source
Jason Finance rating	63.5 / 100	rating method
Highlights	Disclosed protection fund BTC reserve ratio 142% Sept 2026 hack covered by its protection fund
General-user fees (taker)	Spot 0.1%, futures 0.06%	2026-10-08
Invitation code fee discount	20% trading fee discount	2026-10-07
Proof of reserves	2026-09-29 (monthly): BTC 142%, ETH 110%, USDT 107%	2026-10-08
Main licences and registrations	El Salvador CNAD licence, South Africa FSCA licence, Mauritius FSC licence, Australia AUSTRAC registration, Argentina CNV registration	source 1 source 2 source 3 source 4 source 5
USDT withdrawals	Cheapest BEP20 0.01 USDT; 7 common networks supported	2026-10-08
Order book depth (±2%)	BTC/USDT about 10.6M USD, ETH/USDT about 5.7M USD	2026-10-08

Bybit key factsData checked: 2026-10-08

As of 2026-10-08, Bybit's general-user spot taker fee is 0.1% and its futures taker fee is 0.055%. Its 2026-09-23 proof of reserves showed BTC 104%, ETH 103%, USDT 110%.

Item	Details	Source
Jason Finance rating	57.2 / 100	rating method
Highlights	Hacken-verified monthly proof of reserves 2025 hack: users made whole, withdrawals stayed open EU MiCA authorisation
General-user fees (taker)	Spot 0.1%, futures 0.055%	2026-10-08
Invitation code fee discount	Official sign-up offer (not a fee discount)	2026-10-07
Proof of reserves	2026-09-23 (monthly): BTC 104%, ETH 103%, USDT 110%	2026-10-08
Main licences and registrations	EU MiCA (Austria FMA), UAE SCA licence, India FIU registration	source 1 source 2 source 3
Order book depth (±2%)	BTC/USDT about 8.2M USD, ETH/USDT about 4.1M USD	2026-10-08

Security: proof of reserves and past incidents

Proof of reserves: Bybit has third-party verification, Bitget has higher ratios

Both publish a proof of reserves roughly once a month, and both let you use a Merkle tree to check that your own account was included. The differences:

• Bitget has published monthly since December 2022, and on 17 September 2026 it expanded coverage from 4 coins to 19. Its post-hack snapshot of 29 September showed a total reserve ratio of 131%; per-coin ratios, according to media reports, were BTC 142%, ETH 110% and USDT 107%. The reports have no third-party audit and no zero-knowledge proof (the Bitget review has the detailed figures).
• Bybit’s reports are independently verified by Hacken and cover the 50 largest coins by asset size. Its snapshot of 23 September showed BTC 104%, ETH 103% and USDT 110% (see the Bybit review).

Bitget’s ratios are higher, and Bybit’s reports are verified by a third party; these are two separate points. A proof of reserves is a snapshot at one point in time, not a financial audit. For what it can and cannot prove, see “How to check proof of reserves”.

Bitget also has a protection fund. It was set up in 2022 with 5,500 BTC, and Bitget has committed to keeping it at no less than US$300 million. It is meant for user losses from platform-level incidents, subject to Bitget’s investigation and claims review. Bybit’s insurance fund absorbs losses from forced liquidations of futures positions; it is not deposit insurance for users.

Past incidents: both have been hacked

Bybit: on 21 February 2025, an Ethereum multisig cold wallet was attacked. Bybit put the loss at about US$1.46 billion, widely reported as about US$1.5 billion, and the US FBI attributed the attack to a North Korean hacking group. Bybit said user assets remained backed 1:1, that it processed 99.994% of more than 350,000 withdrawal requests within about 10 hours, and that it closed the ETH shortfall within about 72 hours.

Bitget: on 24 September 2026, attackers exploited a vulnerability in a third-party security product to obtain high-privilege internal credentials and moved about US$388 million out of 12 hot and warm wallet addresses across 11 chains. Bitget said its cold wallets and user account balances were not affected, that the company and the protection fund absorbed the loss, and that by 28 September it had topped the protection fund back up by more than US$300 million. Withdrawals resumed in stages from 28 September: BTC on 28 September, ETH on 29 September, USDT on 30 September and the remaining coins on 2 October.

Both incidents show that hot wallets and cold wallets can both be breached, and both exchanges absorbed the losses themselves. The difference is withdrawals: Bybit kept withdrawals running at the time, while Bitget users could not withdraw for a while, and USDT withdrawals did not return until 30 September.

Other records: in 2022 Bybit settled with the Canadian province of Ontario and was blacklisted by France’s AMF (before it obtained MiCA authorisation); in December 2023 the Securities Commission Malaysia ordered it to stop operating there; and in January 2025 it was fined in India for not registering. Bitget received warnings from Japan’s Financial Services Agency in March 2023 and November 2024, and in April 2025, after abnormal trading in VOXEL futures, it rolled back the related trades and compensated affected users.

Licences and restricted regions

The full lists are in each exchange’s terms of service; sources are in the licence sections of the “Bitget review” and the “Bybit review”.

Fees: the same on spot, but Bitget offers a BGB discount

From both exchanges’ official fee schedules on 8 October 2026, for regular users (VIP 0):

In money terms: buying 1,000 USDT of spot at market costs 1 USDT in fees at either exchange. Paying in BGB at Bitget takes 20% off, according to Bitget’s 2025 announcement, bringing it to 0.8 USDT. The BGB discount applies only to spot and margin, not futures, and holding BGB means taking on its price volatility.

The VIP thresholds are far apart. Bitget’s VIP 1 needs any one of 30,000 USDT in assets, 500,000 USDT in 30-day spot volume or holding BGB; Bybit’s needs US$100,000 in assets or US$1 million in 30-day spot volume. At both, the VIP 1 spot maker fee is lower than VIP 0 (Bitget 0.080%, Bybit 0.0675%).

Signing up with an invitation code gets you an additional official fee discount; both exchanges’ percentages are in the invitation code boxes at the end of this article, and how the discount is calculated is in “What is a crypto exchange fee discount”.

Deposit networks and withdrawals

• Supported by both: TRC20, ERC20, BEP20, Solana, TON and Arbitrum. Both support BEP20, so you do not need to switch networks to move USDT between them.
• Minimum deposit: 0.005 USDT on all of these networks at Bybit; mostly 0.01 USDT at Bitget, with 0.5 USDT on ERC20 (official APIs of both exchanges, 7 October 2026).
• Withdrawal fees: Bitget publishes its USDT withdrawal fees. On 8 October 2026 they were 0.01 on BEP20, 0.1 on Arbitrum, 0.15 on TON, 0.5 on Solana, 1.5 on TRC20 and 2 USDT on ERC20, with a 10 USDT minimum withdrawal. Bybit’s withdrawal fees are shown only on the withdrawal page after logging in, and I found no public figures I could verify.

For a comparison of withdrawal fees by exchange and network, and the steps for choosing a network, see “How to choose a USDT withdrawal network”.

Earn: both pay higher tiered rates on the first portion

• Bybit Easy Earn: on 7 October 2026, flexible USDT paid an estimated 7.2% APR on the first 200 USDT and 2.2% on the rest. It can be redeemed at any time, and earnings are calculated every hour and paid daily to the funding account; Bybit says the yield comes from its lending business.
• Bitget Simple Earn: on 7 October 2026 the page listed several flexible USDT products at once. One of them was tiered, paying 7.93% on up to 300 USDT and 3.27% on the rest. It can be redeemed at any time with no penalty, and interest is calculated daily; Bitget’s description does not say where the flexible yield comes from.
• Bitget cash product: USDT or USDC is put into USDGO, a US dollar stablecoin backed by short-term US Treasuries, cash and similar assets, which paid about 4% a year at launch.

At both, the high rates apply only to the first portion, and the more you deposit, the closer your overall rate gets to the lower tier. Rates change daily and are not guaranteed. For what extra risks exchange earn products carry compared with short-term US Treasuries, Aave and Bitfinex lending, see “Where to park idle USD and USDT”.

Who Bitget and Bybit each suit

Neither can be used in the US, Canada, Hong Kong or Singapore, and both have stopped new sign-ups in Japan, so check that your region is not on the restricted list before you sign up. Whichever you choose, only keep on it what you can afford to lose, and keep long-term holdings in a cold wallet where you hold the private keys yourself.

For comparisons with other exchanges, see “How to choose a crypto exchange” and the “international exchange fee comparison”.

Bitget and Bybit invitation codes

More articles are on the crypto topic page.

FAQ

Which is safer, Bitget or Bybit?

Both have been hacked, and they handled it differently. In February 2025, about US$1.5 billion was stolen from a Bybit cold wallet; withdrawals were not suspended and the ETH shortfall was closed within about 72 hours. Bybit's proof of reserves is verified by Hacken. On 24 September 2026, about US$388 million was stolen from Bitget's hot and warm wallets; withdrawals were suspended, then resumed in stages and fully restored on 2 October, and the loss was absorbed by the company and its protection fund. Bitget publishes its own proof of reserves, with no third-party audit.

Which has lower fees, Bitget or Bybit?

For regular users on spot, both charge 0.1% maker and 0.1% taker; paying spot fees in BGB at Bitget takes 20% off, according to Bitget's 2025 announcement. On futures both charge 0.02% maker; taker is 0.055% at Bybit and 0.06% at Bitget (official fee schedules, 8 October 2026).

Is Bitget's VIP 1 threshold lower than Bybit's?

Much lower. At Bitget, you qualify with any one of 30,000 USDT in assets, 500,000 USDT in 30-day spot volume or holding BGB. At Bybit it is US$100,000 in assets or US$1 million in 30-day spot volume.

Can I use Bitget or Bybit if I live in Europe?

Bybit EU GmbH received MiCA authorisation from Austria's FMA in May 2025 and can provide services in the European Economic Area. Bitget has no MiCA authorisation and says it will not serve the European Economic Area until it gets one; its terms of use also list France, Germany and Austria as restricted regions.

Should idle USDT go into Bitget or Bybit flexible earn?

On 7 October 2026, Bybit's flexible USDT paid an estimated 7.2% APR on the first 200 USDT and 2.2% on the rest. Bitget's page listed several flexible USDT products at once; one tiered product paid 7.93% on up to 300 USDT and 3.27% on the rest. Both can be redeemed at any time; rates change daily and are not guaranteed.